NEW DELHI: Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who is also the state president of JDS, has refused support to the Karnataka BJP’s planned padayatra, expressing his anger over the invitation to Pritham Gowda, the former MLA of Hassan.
The BJP has proposed to take out a seven-day ‘padayatra’ from August 3 against the alleged wrong-doings of the Siddaramaiah government.
Speaking to the media this morning in New Delhi, HD Kumaraswamy reacted bitterly, asking whether he could share the stage with the person who poisoned Deve Gowda’s family.
“When they (the BJP) are not ready to take us into confidence, then why should we give support to them(BJP)? They (BJP) must tell us how they treated us regarding the padayatra. What are they trying to achieve? I’m hurt, it pains me. Who is Preetham J Gowda? He’s the one who tried to destroy the HD Devegowda family. They (BJP) bring him on stage and make him sit with me. Who is responsible for the distribution of those pen drives (in Prajwal Revanna’s case)? Don’t they (the BJP) know what happened in Hassan? Electoral alliance is different and politics is different,” HD Kumaraswamy said.
Earlier, the JDS core committee meeting in Bengaluru chaired by GT Deve Gowda had asked the BJP to delay the padayatra due to ongoing rains in the state. JDS President HD Kumaraswamy has now decided that his party will withdraw from this padayatra as it is not a suitable occasion for such an activity.
“The whole state has been shaken by rains, landslides, landslides and crop destruction. There is a possibility of getting criticism from people if you do padayatra in such a difficult situation. It is for this reason that we have withdrawn from the padayatra,” Kumaraswamy said.
“What is the benefit to the people of the state from this padayathra? The legal fight is important here. Only politics is not important for us here. So we don’t even give moral support to Padayatra. Why do we support, when we are not trusted? Our party has strength from Bengaluru to Mysuru,” Kumaraswamy added.
Kumaraswamy highlighted that the JDS core committee was not in favour of joining the padayatra at this point.
“In the core committee meeting, our leaders discussed the padayathra in detail. Everyone’s opinion is that don’t do the padayatra for now, let’s do it after a few days. Hundreds of people have died due to massive landslides in Kerala’s Wayanad, which is adjacent to Kodagu district. Many more have disappeared. Red Alert is present in many districts of our state. In several districts including Kodagu, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Uttara Kannada, and Dakshina Kannada, land subsidence continues,” he said.
The outburst of anger from HD Kumaraswamy is likely to cause some unease in its coalition partner the BJP, especially at a time when the BJP has been aggressive in calling out alleged cases of corruption in the Congress government. (ANI)